Negotiating with empathy: how a book fair taught Muhammad to lead

As part of our Youth Convo Series: Leadership Glow Up, guest speakers from around Generation Global Youth Advisory Group joined a live peer roundtable to share the leadership moments that shaped them. Muhammad, from India, spoke about the time a school book fair turned into his first real lesson in negotiation. Here’s his story:

I’m Muhammad, and I’m from India. Alongside reading and writing poetry, I’ll admit I have a soft spot for a good argument, which is probably why the story I’m about to tell you made so much sense to me at the time.

It started when a major book publishing organisation came to our school and asked if we’d host a book fair. My team and I took the initiative. We weren’t just helping out. We were running the whole thing like a company: marketing, posters, logistics and sales reports. It was my first real taste of what I’d call corporate leadership.

Everything was going fine until a group of five- and six-year-olds showed up asking for a specific brand of books. We didn’t have it. And honestly, I was stunned. How could a major publisher not carry the exact books these children wanted?

My team and I realised we had two options: turn the children away or figure something out. We chose the second one. We walked them around the fair, showed them what we did have and asked what they actually liked about the books they’d been hoping for: the pictures, the characters or the stories. Then we matched them with something from our stock.

It worked. And it taught me something I didn’t expect a book fair to teach me: as a leader, you’ll have your own goals, and your team will have theirs. They won’t always meet in the middle on their own. You have to find that middle ground and negotiate it.

Negotiation gets a bad reputation. People hear the word and think of compromise, of losing something. But for me, it became one of the most important tools I have as a leader. Every team has its own goals. Every person you’re leading has theirs too. Finding that middle ground, and really listening for it, is the job.

If I could leave you with one thing, it’s this: don’t be afraid to negotiate. Learn to find the middle ground, and learn to be empathetic to the people you’re leading. That combination will take you further than either one alone.